Maserati 300 S. Success in major races was modest for Maserati at first, but for the 21- litre Formu

"If you really want to live, drive a 250F or 300S at over nine-tenths," wrote Stirling Moss—who should certainly know—in his foreword to the book Maserati by Richard Crump and Rob Box. Although the Maserati brothers had nothing to do with those particular cars, having long sold the concern bearing their name, they would have enjoyed that comment by Moss. Like Nicola Romeo, Enzo Ferrari and Ettore Bugatti, they loved racing above all, and to have their cars knowledgeably praised was nectar to the famous Fratelli from Bologna.

The new proprietor of Officine Alfieri Maserati SA, the industrialist Comm Adolfo Orsi, was also heavily pro-racing, but tried to leaven his love with com-mercial common sense. He diversified Maserati activities into manufacturing their famous sparking plugs, machine tools, and other articles on a profitable like Mercedes-Benz' 300SLR, the Maserati Tipo 300S introduced in 1955 was a sports-racing edition of their Grand Prix 250F. It won its first 1956 race, the Argentine 1000km, scored again in the Niirburgring 1000km, and also won at Bari, Venezuela, Monahery and elsewhere basis, while his son Omer concentrated on building Maserati sports cars and racing cars for sale to private owners, and ran the factory team largely for prestige purposes. Success in major races was modest for Maserati at first, but for the 21- litre Formula 1 introduced in 1954 they built a new, strong, straightforward six-cylinder single-seater, the Tipo 250F, which they sold to successful privateers such as Moss, Salvadori, Bira, etc, and also ran in their own team.

With the great Fangio at the wheel the works cars won two Championship GPs in their first season, perhaps encouraging the Orsis to an over-ambitious decision to augment their activities with a sports car racing programme.

They took the relatively simple road of enlarging their 250F engine to 3 litres and rebuilding its mixed oval and round-section tubular frame to HA dimensions, and chose the 1956 World Sports Car Championship as a worthy target. The result, the 300S, was a fierce but comely biposto, bearing full-width "Sport" bodywork but betraying its GP ancestry by its big racing wire wheels, short wheelbase and strident exhaust bark. It was very "250F" under its Italian-red painted bodyshell, the six-cylinder twin-cam engine sporting three twin-choke Weber carburettors and giving 260bhp to the circa-250 of the smaller GP unit. At the rear end was the same big five-speed transaxle gear-box and de Dion axle, the cross tube located ahead of the axle line.

With the transverse leaf spring above and the "sideways on" gearbox behind amidst a lacing of frame tubes, it all looked highly complicated but was, in fact, one of the car's best features, giving excellent roadholding in conjunction with the coil spring front end, good weight distribution and precise steering a la 250F.

In all respects it was a strong, rela-tively simple car which merited less hurried, more thorough preparation than the Maserati racing organisation could give it when also grappling with 11 and 2 litre sports cars and a Formula 1 team.

After some tentative essays in 1955, the 1956 season began splendidly with victory in the Argentine 1000km race by Moss and local driver Menditeguy. Sebring and the Mille Miglia brought no success, but in the Niirburgring 1000km Moss and the 300S did it again, his winning drive being shared by Behra, Schell and Taruffi owing to a quick changeover of cars during the race.

Then came the decisive Swedish GP, which proved disastrous for Maserati with all five cars retiring—leaving Ferrari with the laurels and the Championship Ironically, the 300S thereafter enjoyed success after success in 1956 non-Championship races. Stirling Moss won at Bari, Venezuela, in the Australian TT, and at Nassau, while other 300S drivers won the Paris 1000km and the Coupe du Salon in France and private owners in the USA won several more races.

Hopes thus ran high for 1957, but it proved a frustrating season of second places and class "firsts", but only one outright win for the 300S by Fangio in the GP of Cuba. Maserati's Championship chal-lenge was vested in a fierce and very costly 41 litre four-cam V8 nicknamed "the Bazooka", which won two Championship rounds but again lost the title to Ferrari, and almost broke the company. In a calamitous end-of-season GP at Venezuela all four V8s crashed, two being destroyed by fire, whereupon Comm Orsi ordered Maserati's complete withdrawal from racing.

In 1958 drastic retrenchment took place, wherein the redundant 300S served another useful purpose, for from it was evolved the 3500GT sports car, the first road model ever produced in serious quantities by Maserati in over 30 years. Its 3,485cc engine was a detuned, longer-stroke edition of the 300S, driving through a four-speed ZF gearbox in unit with the engine in place of the expensive transaxle. Vignale, Touring, Frua and other coachbuilders clothed its tubular space frame with suave and tasteful Italian carrozzeria, and Maserati joined the.ranks of the exotic automobile manufacturers—if they could not beat Ferrari in the World Sports Car Championship, they could bid instead for part of their luxury sports car market.

With careful direction by Adolfo Orsi they did it very effectively, nearly 2,000 3500GTs, along with other models, being built during the next seven years, ensuring the survival of the famous Trident marque into modern times.

Specification Engine: 6 cylinders in line, detachable alloy head; 84 x 90mm, 2,991cc; 2ohc operating 2ohv per cylinder; triple Weber twin-choke carburettors; twin Marelli magneto ignition, 2 plugs per cylinder; 7-bearing crankshaft; 260bhp at 6,500rpm. Transmission: Single dry-plate clutch; open propellor shaft to 5-speed transverse gearbox in unit with final drive; limited-slip differential. Chassis: Welded multi-tubular frame; independent front suspension by coil springs and wishbones; de Dion type rear suspension with transverse leaf spring; hydraulic dampers all round; hydraulic drum brakes. Dimensions: Wheelbase, 7ft 8-4in; front track, 4ft 4in; rear track, 4ft 2in; approx. dry weight, 1,6501b.